Assessment of various factors influencing esophageal pressure measurement. II. Significance of physiological factors in intraluminal manometry.

In the second part of this study the effect of age, sex, body size, body weight and timing of the manometric examination (morning vs. noon) on esophageal pressure measurement was investigated in a total of 119 healthy subjects, using an electromagnetic microtransducer. Additionally intraindividual variation of pressures was studied over a period of 6 months. Of these parameters only age influenced upper esophageal sphincter (UES) pressure significantly: The mean UES pressure of younger subjects (20-49 years) was significantly higher (144.4 +/- 8.6 mmHg) compared to that of older subjects (50-80 years) where a mean pressure of 103.4 +/- 7.2 mmHg was recorded (p less than 0.0005). Intraindividual variation of pressures in the lower esophageal sphincter (LES) was considerable but exceeded only in a few cases the normal pressure range which was defined as M +/- 2 S. The results indicate that age, sex, different body weight and body size do not influence significantly the normal values obtained by a quantitative manometric method. In UES manometry however, the diminished resting pressure in the older patient must be taken into account.